Radriffa slept sideways on the bed beneath barred windows, the morning light filling the room to wake him gently. His father, Peter Toby, sat beside him listening to the crackle of a handheld radio, taking in the day"s headlines. It was quiet that morning in Monrovia, and I stood in the corner of Toby"s one-room household processing that awkward feeling that comes when you peer into someone"s intimate moments. As a twenty-five year old grad student from the U.S. I felt more than out of … [Read more...]
Being the Other
Everyone should feel what it"s like to be "the other" – to look around and find yourself in a sea of unknown, to be the one without power, at the mercy of human kind and kindness. During a soccer pitch dedication, a gift to Clara Town from the ruling Unity Party, a small group of young men were racing to the best online casino field, megaphone in hand, yelling words I couldn"t make it out through the distorting device. I saw their energy. I ran in close; I began shooting. "FUCK YOU!" Over … [Read more...]
First frame in Clara Town
Shooting the first frame is always the hardest. I find every time, no matter where in the world I am, I have to drum up the courage and, fearing rejection, walk up and say "hi." Usually that leads to pictures; rarely do people say no. But there is something about human nature, best online casino or maybe just something about me, that wants to avoid that rejection at all cost. After it has all played out and I"m looking through the images at the end of a hard day, I can"t imagine having not … [Read more...]
Bridging Past and Present
It"s haunting. Echoes of war all around, but life moves at such a blurring speed it would be easy to not notice. Yesterday I crossed a bridge where a photograph was made by Chris Hondros during the war. I instantly knew the place because that image had become an icon of the conflict in Liberia. Later it was a Pulitzer finalist. The photographer, Hondros, was killed in Libya in April documenting the conflict there. The image from the bridge, taken in 2003, of a Liberian militia commander … [Read more...]
In Monrovia, you must "be the traffic"
Being a passenger in Monrovia traffic is a special experience. It’s a white-knuckle carnival ride — without the carnival glitz but with all the thrills. Our drivers — most often David Kweku and his father, Joseph — surely could meet and beat the challenge of any street in any big U.S. city. They are unflappable and oblivious, oddly good-natured about it. I had a friend some years ago who seemed immune to the cold weather, while my wife and I were freezing. “What’s your secret?” we asked. He … [Read more...]
We get a surprise at church
For the second Sunday in a row, we attended services at a Pentecostal church this past weekend. This one was a 40-minute drive outside Monrovia, right off the Atlantic. (In fact, the final stretch of “road” that carried us there was a bit of hard-packed sand no more than 25 or 30 feet from the crashing waves. (Since I can’t swim, this prompted me to get an early start on my prayers.) The service was very similar to the first week, though there were two dozen parishioners this time and not … [Read more...]
You can “click,” or make it “explode”
Liberia could be the only country with a national handshake. The greeting actually can be a whole series of moves after the shakers lock hands, or it can be a simple, vanilla shake, as long as it ends with the distinctive “click,” where the shaking parties grasp the tips of each other’s middle fingers and snap. The best shakers can produce an arresting click, audible across a room. The worst? Silence. A complete misfire. Epic failure. This befalls many rookies visiting the country for … [Read more...]
The Radio is Coming to You
During our sojourn to the seaside town of Cestos, capital of Rivercess County, we launched the Soundbooth, an audio documentary project modeled on NPR"s StoryCorps. The idea is to have two people very familiar with each other - a mother and a daughter, a teacher and a student, a pair of friends - interview each other on a story or topic relevant to their lives. StoryCorps has been doing this for a while, and has a great archive of American stories, told in conversational, intimate style. We"re … [Read more...]
“Gaffa girl” makes mark in rap
Having spent the last two days working on the set of a real, live reggae video, I can now add “gaffa” to my CV. I am someone with few, if any, practical visual media skills. So how did I end up on the production team for what might be the most polished music video to ever come out of Monrovia? The story starts, as the best ones always do, in the hotel bar. Exhausted after a day of media training in the sticky Liberian summer, I was trudging through the bar to the dining room when Sayeed, … [Read more...]
To the media, the answer is “yes”
I continue to be amazed at the uncommon access we get here while working on our stories. Bureaucrats, as well as everyday people, haven’t caught on to what’s become the default answer to the media in America: “No.” Instead, here we ask — and our sources say “yes.” They are happy to have their stories told. Earlier this week, to start off on a set of stories about education, we walked the campus of the local high school in Cestos, south of Monrovia, without escort. And we stumbled on exactly … [Read more...]
Suppression Inna We Nation, It Makes the Poor People Weep
Corruption bringing poverty And poverty putting my sisters on the street... They abuse us many days And misuse us so many ways - Nasseman, 'Bonkey' We were first introduced to Rabbie Nassrallah, aka Nasseman, last Wednesday night, by Sayeed, the manager of our guesthouse. We didn't realize at the time that we were meeting Liberia's premier reggae star, nor just how quickly he would become a significant part of our project. Rabbie has been living in Monrovia his entire life, … [Read more...]
Education in Cestos, Rivercess county
It was all about education. As media trainers, we improved the storytelling skills of our journalism students. As storytellers, our students focused on education issues in one of the poorest counties in Liberia. As foreigners, we were schooled in both the best and worst parts of traveling in Liberia. Smiles, beaches and cool breezes welcomed us to Cestos. Most locals took us in with open arms, showing us the warm hospitality of a rural community in Liberia. Unfortunately, a robber and some … [Read more...]
On the road to Rivercess …
We were told the drive to Cestos, in Rivercess County, should only take about three hours. It's roughly 180 miles. But I should have know better. Always double times and add some more. In the end, it took close to seven hours to travel to Cestos. The road was paved for half the distance. The other half was like being locked inside a pinball machine, bouncing around in the back of the van, trying to keep my head from slamming into the door. But the sights were good along the way. Here are a few … [Read more...]
The Paradox That Is Liberia
A teenage boy lives with his family on the third floor of an abandoned office building on Broad Street in Downtown Monrovia, Liberia. Teenaged school children mingle during a break between classes at Cestos High School. The school district in Rivercess County offer one Primary elementary and one high school for the entire county. Often children walk several hours to attend or get a ride on small motorcycles to get them to school. A young girl sells fruit to residents and tourist … [Read more...]
Hungry to vote
“Mark,” my cab driver around town Saturday, didn’t hesitate when I asked him who would get his vote for president in October or November. “Ellen,” he said, as President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson is called. Mark then produced a shiny card from his ash try — his voter registration card. He said he was going out of his way to keep it clean, because the sooner he used it, the better. Indeed, when the vote will be held is in some doubt. A referendum will determine if the vote should be pushed from … [Read more...]
Church welcomes our team
We arrived at the church an hour late; one of our two taxis had broken down. Joseph, a taxi driver and presiding elder in the church, was dressed to the nines in an orange blazer and navy tie. He had told the congregation that he was bringing foreign guests, and was obviously anxious to deliver on his promise. The church was in the middle of a very poor neighborhood. Because of the rain, there were deep, muddy puddles in the road that our low-slung taxi struggled to get through. People along … [Read more...]
Connections Easily Made In Liberia
It’s all about connections in the new Liberia, just as it is everywhere else on the planet. That said, I still was a bit taken aback with the information I gleaned the other day while strolling on the Atlantic Ocean beach just a quarter-mile from the guest house where we are staying. On the sands, I ran into a young man and his dog. We shared a laugh when we introduced ourselves and heard an echo. Steve, meet Steve. My new friend Steve Kollie was a bit shy but warmed quickly. We … [Read more...]
Images From Training
It"s been a great week. We completed our first series of training sessions yesterday. Through lectures and exercises, we guided the students through lessons on story development, interviewing techniques, audio storytelling, writing, photographic storytelling and key principles, such as ethics. Next week, we head out to the countryside to put those lessons into practice as we start producing election-related stories. … [Read more...]
More Politics Over Lunch
William Morris by William Morris, of online casino the Liberty Party, shares his thoughts about the role of a free press in the upcoming elections. We approached Morris and friends at their lunch table. … [Read more...]
The Rainy Season In Liberia …
The rainy season runs from May to October in Liberia, dropping an average of 170 inches of rain. Most nights, we"ve had thunderstorms and heavy rains that have lasted through the night. During the day, sporadic rain showers have made us run for cover. … [Read more...]
Together Liberia on Truth FM, The Leading Lady
Together Liberia on Truth FM, The Leading Lady by Together Liberia Believe in yourself. Don’t be bitter. Don’t be negative. You can do it. From 10:15 to 11 every Friday night from a studio in downtown Monrovia, “The Leading Lady” on Truth FM 96.1 talks Liberians into believing in themselves — and, she hopes, out of their feelings of despair. Matenneh-Rose Dunbar may not be a psychologist, but she sounds like one on the air. All of Liberia is her therapist’s couch. Her … [Read more...]
Class Is In Session!
Our first class of students showed up Wednesday, and they put in a full morning and afternoon of work. We’ll be working with them at our headquarters in Monrovia all of this week; next week we plan to travel out into one of Liberia’s 15 counties to find stories to tell there. The idea is for our training and outing to serve as a template for two more rounds just like this one. We hope to equip our trainees with the skills (as well as some equipment) to continue this kind of work long after we … [Read more...]
More Political Talk Over Lunch
Long before Election Day, politics makes great table talk. This is the second installment from a best online casino political conversation we stumbled upon at the Krystal Oceanside hotel — a take on the media and Liberian politics by Amos Swaray, press and public relations director of the Congress for Democratic Change. … [Read more...]
Media that matters
As the Together Liberia team sets out on this project to empower Liberians to tell stories to their fellow citizens and the world, I"ve been inspired with confidence that media tools have the potential to transform lives and, potentially, the way the country operates. We"ve already seen that Liberians have taken steps to tell their own stories through the media and enable other Liberians to do the same. The Together Liberia team visited the headquarters of the Liberia Media Initiative for … [Read more...]
Day 1: Get hauled off by Liberian police for taking photos
David Trotman-Wilkins, (center/back row), still can smile after being forced by Liberian police to erase two photographs he took of the new U.S. Embassy in Monrovia. Over my career, soldiers and police have confiscated my film and digital images in Cuba, Honduras, Armenia, Malawi and Uganda. But this last time when we arrived here, it was David Trotman-Wilkins who inadvertently broke the law. His transgression? Taking two photos of the currently under construction U.S. Embassy. Here"s what … [Read more...]
